J E R E M I A H.

CHAP. XXIII.

In this chapter the prophet, in God's name, is
dealing his reproofs and threatenings, I. Among the careless
princes, or pastors of the people (ver. 1, 2), yet promising to take care of
the flock, which they had been wanting in their duty to, ver. 3-8. II. Among the wicked
prophets and priests, whose bad character is here given at large in
divers instances, especially their imposing upon the people with
their pretended inspirations, at which the prophet is astonished,
and for which they must expect to be punished, ver. 9-32. III. Among the profane people,
who ridiculed God's prophets and bantered them, ver. 33-40. When all have thus corrupted
their way they must all expect to be told faithfully of it.

Evangelical Predictions. (b. c. 590.)

1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and
scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. 2 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors
that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them
away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the
evil of your doings, saith the Lord.
3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all
countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to
their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 And
I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they
shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking,
saith the Lord. 5 Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, that I
will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign
and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE
Lord OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 7
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children
of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 8 But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the
seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all
countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their
own land.

I. Here is a word of terror to the
negligent shepherds. The day is at hand when God will reckon with
them concerning the trust and charge committed to them: Woe be
to the pastors (to the rulers, both in church and state)
who should be to those they are set over as pastors to lead them,
feed them, protect them, and take care of them. They are not owners
of the sheep. God here calls them the sheep of my pasture,
whom I am interested in, and have provided good pasture for. Woe be
to those therefore who are commanded to feed God's people, and
pretend to do it, but who, instead of that, scatter the
flock, and drive them away by their violence and
oppression, and have not visited them, nor taken any care
for their welfare, nor concerned themselves at all to do them good.
In not visiting them, and doing their duty to them, they did in
effect scatter them and drive them away. The beasts of prey
scattered them, and the shepherds are in the fault, who should have
kept them together. Woe be to them when God will visit upon
them the evil of their doings and deal with them as they deserve.
They would not visit the flock in a way of duty, and therefore God
will visit them in a way of vengeance.

II. Here is a word of comfort to the
neglected sheep. Though the under-shepherds take no care of them,
no pains with them, but betray them, the chief Shepherd will look
after them. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the
Lord taketh me up. Though the interests of God's church in the
world are neglected by those who should take care of them, and
postponed to their own private secular interests, yet they shall
not therefore sink. God will perform his promise, though those he
employs do not perform their duty.

1. The dispersed Jews shall at length
return to their own land, and be happily settled there under a good
government, v. 3,
4. Though there be but a remnant of God's flock left, a
little remnant, that has narrowly escaped destruction, he will
gather that remnant, will find them out wherever they are and find
out ways and means to bring them back out of all countries
whither he had driven them. It was the justice of God, for
the sin of their shepherds, that dispersed them; but the mercy of
God shall gather in the sheep, when the shepherds that betrayed
them are cut off. They shall be brought to their former
habitations, as sheep to their folds, and there they shall be
fruitful, and increase in numbers. And, though their former
shepherds took no care of them, it does not therefore follow that
they shall have no more. If some have abused a sacred office, that
is no good reason why it should be abolished. "They destroyed the
sheep, but I will set shepherds over them who shall make it their
business to feed them." Formerly they were continually exposed and
disturbed with some alarm or other; but now they shall fear no
more, nor be dismayed; they shall be in no danger from without,
in no fright from within. Formerly some or other of them were ever
and anon picked up by the beasts of prey; but now none of them
shall be lacking, none of them missing. Though the times may
have been long bad with the church, it does not follow that they
will be ever so. Such pastors as Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, though
they lived not in the pomp that Jehoiakim and Jeconiah did, nor
made such a figure, were as great blessings to the people as the
others were plagues to them. The church's peace is not bound up in
the pomp of her rulers.

2. Messiah the Prince, that great and good
Shepherd of the sheep, shall in the latter days be raised up to
bless his church, and to be the glory of his people Israel,v. 5, 6. The house
of David seemed to be quite sunk and ruined by that threatening
against Jeconiah (ch. xxii.
30), that none of his seed should ever sit upon the
throne of David. But here is a promise which effectually
secures the honour of the covenant made with David notwithstanding;
for by it the house will be raised out of its ruins to a greater
lustre than ever, and shine brighter far than it did in Solomon
himself. We have not so many prophecies of Christ in this book as
we had in that of the prophet Isaiah; but here we have one, and a
very illustrious one; of him doubtless the prophet here speaks, of
him, and of no other man. The first words intimate that it would be
long ere this promise should have its accomplishment: The days
come, but they are not yet. I shall see him, but not
now. But all the rest intimate that the accomplishment of it
will be glorious. (1.) Christ is here spoken of as a branch from
David, the man the branch (Zech. iii. 8), his appearance mean, his
beginnings small, like those of a bud or sprout, and his rise
seemingly out of the earth, but growing to be green, to be great,
to be loaded with fruits. A branch from David's family, when it
seemed to be a root in a dry ground, buried, and not likely
to revive. Christ is the root and offspring of David,Rev. xxii. 16. In him doth
the horn of David bud, Ps.
cxxxii. 17, 18. He is a branch of God's raising up; he
sanctified him, and sent him into the world, gave him his
commission and qualifications. He is a righteous branch, for
he is righteous himself, and through him many, even all that are
his, are made righteous. As an advocate, he is Jesus Christ the
righteous. (2.) He is here spoken of as his church's King. This
branch shall be raised as high as the throne of his father David,
and there he shall reign and prosper, not as the kings that
now were of the house of David, who went backward in all their
affairs. No; he shall set up a kingdom in the world that shall be
victorious over all opposition. In the chariot of the everlasting
gospel he shall go forth, he shall go on conquering and to
conquer. If God raise him up, he will prosper him, for he will
own the work of his own hands; what is the good pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in the hands of those to whom it is
committed. He shall prosper; for he shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth, all the world over, Ps. xcvi. 13. The present kings of the house
of David were unjust and oppressive, and therefore it is no wonder
that they did not prosper. But Christ shall, by his gospel, break
the usurped power of Satan, institute a perfect rule of holy
living, and, as far as it prevails, make all the world righteous.
The effect of this shall be a holy security and serenity of mind in
all his faithful loyal subjects. In his days, under his
dominion, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell
safely; that is, all the spiritual seed of believing Abraham
and praying Jacob shall be protected from the curse of heaven and
the malice of hell, shall be privileged from the arrests of God's
law and delivered from the attempts of Satan's power, shall be
saved from sin, the guilt and dominion of it, and then shall
dwell safely, and be quiet from the fear of all evil. See
Luke i. 74, 75. Those
that shall be saved hereafter from the wrath to come may dwell
safely now; for, if God be for us, who can be against us? In
the days of Christ's government in the soul, when he is uppermost
there, the soul dwells at ease. (3.) He is here spoken of as
The Lord our righteousness. Observe, [1.] Who and what he
is. As God, he is Jehovah, the incommunicable name of God,
denoting his eternity and self-existence. As Mediator, he is our
righteousness. By making satisfaction to the justice of God for
the sin of man, he has brought in an everlasting righteousness, and
so made it over to us in the covenant of grace that, upon our
believing consent to that covenant, it becomes ours. His being
Jehovah our righteousness implies that he is so our
righteousness as no creature could be. He is a sovereign,
all-sufficient, eternal righteousness. All our righteousness has
its being from him, and by him it subsists, and we are made the
righteousness of God in him. [2.] The profession and
declaration of this: This is the name whereby he shall be
called, not only he shall be so, but he shall be known to be
so. God shall call him by this name, for he shall appoint him to be
our righteousness. By this name Israel shall call him, every
true believer shall call him, and call upon him. That is our
righteousness by which, as an allowed plea, we are justified before
God, acquitted from guilt, and accepted into favour; and nothing
else have we to plead but this, "Christ has died, yea, rather has
risen again;" and we have taken him for our Lord.

3. This great salvation, which will come to
the Jews in the latter days of their state, after their return out
of Babylon, shall be so illustrious as far to outshine the
deliverance of Israel out of Egypt (v. 7, 8): They shall no more say,
The Lord liveth that brought up Israel out of Egypt; but, The Lord
liveth that brought them up out of the north. This we had
before, ch. xvi. 14,
15. But here it seems to point more plainly than it did
there to the days of the Messiah, and to compare not so much the
two deliverances themselves (giving the preference to the latter)
as the two states to which the church by degrees grew after those
deliverances. Observe the proportion: Just 480 years after they had
come out of Egypt Solomon's temple was built (1 Kings vi. 1); and at that time that nation,
which was so wonderfully brought up out of Egypt, had gradually
arrived to its height, to its zenith. Just 490 years (70 weeks)
after they came out of Babylon Messiah the Prince set up the gospel
temple, which was the greatest glory of that nation that was so
wonderfully brought out of Babylon; see Dan. ix. 24, 25. Now the spiritual glory of
the second part of that nation, especially as transferred to the
gospel church, is much more admirable and illustrious than all the
temporal glory of the first part of it in the days of Solomon; for
that was no glory compared with the glory which excelleth.

Guilt of False Prophets. (b. c. 600.)

9 Mine heart within me is broken because of the
prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a
man whom wine hath overcome, because of the Lord, and because of the words of his holiness.
10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of
swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness
are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is
not right. 11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea,
in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. 12 Wherefore their way shall be
unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be
driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them,
even the year of their visitation, saith the Lord. 13 And I have seen folly in the
prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people
Israel to err. 14 I have seen also in the prophets of
Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies:
they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return
from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the
inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. 15 Therefore thus saith the
Lord of hosts concerning the
prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them
drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is
profaneness gone forth into all the land. 16 Thus saith the
Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the
words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain:
they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the
mouth of the Lord. 17 They
say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they
say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own
heart, No evil shall come upon you. 18 For who hath stood in
the counsel of the Lord, and hath
perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard
it? 19 Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous
whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.
20 The anger of the Lord
shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have
performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall
consider it perfectly. 21 I have not sent these prophets,
yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my
people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from
their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. 23
Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? 24 Can any
hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the
Lord. Do not I fill heaven and
earth? saith the Lord. 25 I
have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name,
saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26 How long shall
this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies?
yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
27 Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their
dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers
have forgotten my name for Baal. 28 The prophet that hath a
dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him
speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?
saith the Lord. 29 Is
not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the
rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, behold, I am against
the prophets, saith the Lord, that
steal my words every one from his neighbour. 31 Behold, I
am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.
32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false
dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell
them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their
lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they
shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.

Here is a long lesson for the false
prophets. As none were more bitter and spiteful against God's true
prophets than they, so there were none on whom the true prophets
were more severe, and justly. The prophet had complained to God of
those false prophets (ch. xiv.
13), and had often foretold that they should be involved
in the common ruin; but here they have woes of their own.

I. He expresses the deep concern that he
was under upon this account, and what a trouble it was to him to
see men who pretended to a divine commission and inspiration
ruining themselves, and the people among whom they dwelt, by their
falsehood and treachery (v.
9): My heart within me is broken; I am like a drunken
man. His head was in confusion with wonder and astonishment;
his heart was under oppression with grief and vexation. Jeremiah
was a man that laid things much to heart, and what was any way
threatening to his country made a deep impression upon his spirits.
He is here in trouble, 1. Because of the prophets and their
sin, the false doctrine they preached, the wicked lives they lived;
especially it filled him with horror to hear them making use of
God's name and pretending to have their instruction from him. Never
was the Lord so abused, and the words of his holiness, as by
these men. Note, The dishonour done to God's name, and the
profanation of his holy word, are the greatest grief imaginable to
a gracious soul. 2. "Because of the Lord, and his judgments,
which by this means are brought in upon us like a deluge." He
trembled to think of the ruin and desolation which were coming
from the face of the Lord (so the word is) and from the
face of the word of his holiness, which will be inflicted by
the power of God's wrath, according to the threatenings of his
word, confirmed by his holiness. Note, Even those that have
God for them cannot but tremble to think of the misery of those
that have God against them.

II. He laments the abounding abominable
wickedness of the land and the present tokens of God's displeasure
they were under for it (v.
10): The land is full of adulterers; it is full
both of spiritual and corporal whoredom. They go a whoring from
God, and, having cast off the fear of him, no marvel that they
abandon themselves to all manner of lewdness; and, having
dishonoured themselves and their own bodies, they dishonour God and
his name by rash and false swearing, because of which the land
mourns. Both perjury and common swearing are sins for which a
land must mourn in true repentance or it will be made to mourn
under the judgments of God. Their land mourned now under the
judgment of famine; the pleasant places, or rather the
pastures, or (as some read it) the habitations of the
wilderness, are dried up for want of rain, and yet we see no
signs of repentance. They answer not the end of the correction. The
tenour and tendency of men's conversations are sinful, their
course continues evil, as bad as ever, and they will not be
diverted from it. They have a great deal of resolution, but it is
turned the wrong way; they are zealously affected, but not
in a good thing: Their force is not right; their heart is
fully set in them to do evil, and they are not valiant for the
truth, have not courage enough to break off their evil courses,
though they see God thus contending with them.

III. He charges it all upon the prophets
and priests, especially the prophets. They are both profane
(v. 11); the
priests profane the ordinances of God they pretend to administer;
the prophets profane the word of God they pretend to deliver; their
converse and all their conversation are profane, and then it is not
strange that the people are so debauched. They both play the
hypocrite (so some read it); under sacred pretensions they
carry on the vilest designs; yea, not only in their own houses, and
the bad houses they frequent, but in my house have I found their
wickedness; in the temple, where the priests ministered, where
the prophets prophesied, there were they guilty both of idolatry
and immorality. See a woeful instance in Hophni and Phinehas,
1 Sam. ii. 22. God searches
his house, and what wickedness is there he will find it out; and
the nearer it is to him the more offensive it is. Two things are
charged upon them:—1. That they taught people to sin by their
examples. He compares them with the prophets of Samaria, the head
city of the kingdom of the ten tribes, which had been long since
laid waste. It was the folly of the prophets of Samaria that
they prophesied in Baal, in Baal's name; so Ahab's prophets
did, and so they caused my people Israel to err, to forsake
the service of the true God and to worship Baal, v. 13. Now the prophets of Jerusalem
did not do so; they prophesied in the name of the true God, and
valued themselves upon that, that they were not like the prophets
of Samaria, who prophesied in Baal; but what the better, when they
debauched the nation as much by their immoralities as the other had
done by their idolatries? It is a horrible thing in the prophets of
Jerusalem that they make use of the name of the holy God, and yet
wallow in all manner of impurity; they make nothing of committing
adultery. They make use of the name of the God of truth, and yet
walk in lies; they not only prophesy lies, but in their
common conversation one cannot believe a word they say. It is all
either jest and banter or fraud and design. Thus they encourage
sinners to go on in their wicked ways; for every one will say,
"Surely we may do as the prophets do; who can expect that we should
be better than our teachers?" By this means it is that none returns
from his wickedness; but they all say that they shall have
peace, though they go on, for their prophets tell them so.
By this means Judah and Jerusalem have become as Sodom and
Gomorrah, that were wicked, and sinners before the Lord
exceedingly; and God looked upon them accordingly as fit for
nothing but to be destroyed, as they were, with fire and brimstone.
2. That they encouraged people in sin by their false prophecies.
They made themselves believe that there was no harm, no danger in
sin, and practiced accordingly; and then no marvel that they made
others believe so too (v.
16): They speak a vision of their own heart; it
is the product of their own invention, and agrees with their own
inclination, but it is not out of the mouth of the Lord; he
never dictated it to them, nor did it agree either with the law of
Moses or with what God has spoken by other prophets. They tell
sinners that it shall be well with them though they persist in
their sins, v. 17.
See here who those are that they encourage—those that despise
God, that slight his authority, and have low and mean thoughts
of his institutions, and those that walk after the imagination
of their own heart, that are worshippers of idols and slaves to
their own lusts; those that are devoted to their pleasures put
contempt upon their God. Yet see how these prophets caressed and
flattered them: they should have been still saying, There is no
peace to those that go on in their evil ways—Those that despise
God shall be lightly esteemed—Woe, and a thousand woes, to
them; but they still said, You shall have peace; no evil shall
come upon you. And, which was worst of all, they told them,
God has said so, so making him to patronize sin, and to
contradict himself. Note, Those that are resolved to go on in their
evil ways will justly be given up to believe the strong delusions
of those who tell them that they shall have peace though they go
on.

IV. God disowns all that these false
prophets said to sooth people up in their sins (v. 21): I have not sent these
prophets; they never had any mission from God. They were not
only not sent by him on this errand, but they were never sent by
him on any errand; he never had employed them in any service or
business for him; and, as to this matter, whereas they pretended to
have instructions from him to assure this people of peace, he
declares that he never gave them any such instructions. Yet they
were very forward—they ran; they were very bold—they
prophesied without any of that difficulty with which the true
prophets sometimes struggled. They said to sinners, You shall
have peace. But (v.
18): "Who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord?
Who of you has, that are so confident of this? You deliver this
message with a great deal of assurance; but have you consulted God
about it? No; you never considered whether it be agreeable to the
discoveries God has made of himself, whether it will consist with
the honour of his holiness and justice, to let sinners go
unpunished. You have not perceived and heard his word, nor
marked that; you have not compared this with the scripture;
if you had taken notice of that, and of the constant tenour of it,
you would never have delivered such a message." The prophets
themselves must try the spirits by the touchstone of the law and of
the testimony, as well as those to whom they prophesy; but which of
those did so that prophesied of peace? That they did not stand
in God's counsel nor hear his word is proved afterwards,
v. 22. If they
had stood in my counsel, as they pretend, 1. They would have
made the scriptures their standard: They would have caused my
people to hear my words, and would have conscientiously kept
closely to them. But, not speaking according to that rule, it is a
plain evidence that there is no light in them. 2. They would have
made the conversion of souls their business, and would have aimed
at that in all their preaching. They would have done all they could
to turn people from their evil way in general and
from all the particular evil of their doings. They would
have encouraged and assisted the reformation of manners, would have
made this their scope in all their preaching, to part between men
and their sins; but it appeared that this was a thing they never
aimed at, but, on the contrary, to encourage sinners in their sins.
3. They would have had some seals of their ministry. This sense our
translation gives it: If they had stood in my counsel, and
the words they had preached had been my words, then they
should have turned them from their evil way; a divine power
should have gone along with the word for the conviction of sinners.
God will bless his own institutions. Yet this is no certain rule;
Jeremiah himself, though God sent him, prevailed with but few to
turn from their evil way.

V. God threatens to punish these prophets
for their wickedness. They promised the people peace; and to
show them the folly of that God tells them that they should have no
peace themselves. They were very unfit to warrant the people, and
pass their word to them that no evil shall come upon them, when all
evil is coming upon themselves and they are not aware of it,
v. 12. Because the
prophets and priests are profane, therefore their ways shall be
unto them as slippery ways in the darkness. Those that
undertake to lead others, because they mislead them, and know they
do so, shall themselves have no comfort in their way. 1. They
pretend to show others the way, but they shall themselves be in the
dark, or in a mist; their light or sight shall fail, so that they
shall not be able to look before them, shall have no forecast for
themselves. 2. They pretend to give assurances to others, but they
themselves shall find no firm footing: Their ways shall be to
them as slippery ways, in which they shall not go with any
steadiness, safety, or satisfaction. 3. They pretend to make the
people easy with their flatteries, but they shall themselves be
uneasy: They shall be driven, forced forward as captives, or
making their escape as those that are pursued, and they shall
fall in the way by which they hoped to escape, and so fall into
the enemies' hands. 4. They pretend to prevent the evil that
threatens others, but God will bring evil upon them, even the
year of their visitation, the time fixed for calling them to an
account; such a time is fixed concerning all that do not judge
themselves, and it will be an evil time. The year of
visitation is the year of recompenses. It is further threatened
(v. 15), I will
feed them with wormwood, or poison, with that which is not only
nauseous, but noxious, and make them drink waters of gall,
or (as some read it) juice of hemlock; see ch. ix. 15. Justly is the cup
of trembling put into their hand first, for from the prophets of
Jerusalem, who should have been patterns of piety and every
thing that is praiseworthy, even from them has profaneness gone
forth into all the lands. Nothing more effectually debauches a
nation than the debauchery of ministers.

VI. The people are here warned not to give
any credit to these false prophets; for, though they flattered them
with hopes of impunity, the judgments of God would certainly break
out against them, unless they repented (v. 16): "Take notice of what God
says, and hearken not to the words of these prophets; for
you will find, in the issue, that God's word shall stand, and not
theirs. God's word will make you serious, but they make you
vain, feed you with vain hopes, which will fail you at last.
They tell you, No evil shall come upon you; but hear what
God says (v. 19),
Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury. They
tell you, All shall be calm and serene; but God tells you, There is
a storm coming, a whirlwind of the Lord, of his sending, and
therefore there is no standing before it. It is a whirlwind raised
by divine wrath; it has gone forth in fury, a wind that is
brought forth out of the treasuries of divine vengeance; and
therefore it is a grievous whirlwind, and shall light
heavily, with rain and hail, upon the head of the wicked,
which they cannot avoid nor find any shelter from." It shall
fall upon the wicked prophets themselves who deceived the
people, and the wicked people who suffered themselves to be
deceived. A horrible tempest shall be the portion of
their cup, Ps. xi. 6.
This sentence is bound on as irreversible (v. 20): The anger of the Lord
shall not return, for the decree has gone forth. God will not
alter his mind, nor suffer his anger to be turned away, till he
have executed the sentence and performed the thoughts of his
heart. God's whirlwind, when it comes down from heaven,
returns not thither, but accomplishes that for which he sent
it, Isa. lv. 11. This
they will not consider now; but in the latter days you shall
consider it perfectly, consider it with understanding
(so the word is) or with consideration. Note, Those that
will not fear the threatenings shall feel the execution of them,
and will then perfectly understand what they will not now admit the
evidence of, what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands
of a just and jealous God. Those that will not consider in time
will be made to consider when it is too late. Son,
remember.

VII. Several things are here offered to the
consideration of these false prophets for their conviction, that,
if possible, they might be brought to recant their error and
acknowledge the cheat they had put upon God's people.

1. Let them consider that though they may
impose upon men God is too wise to be imposed upon. Men cannot see
through their fallacies, but God can and does. Here,

(1.) God asserts his own omnipresence and
omniscience in general, v.
23, 24. When they told the people that no evil should
befall them though they went on in their evil ways they went upon
atheistical principles, that the Lord doth not see their sin, that
he cannot judge through the dark cloud, that he will not require
it; and therefore they must be taught the first principles of their
religion, and confronted with the most incontestable self-evident
truths. [1.] That though God's throne is prepared in the heavens,
and this earth seems to be at a distance from him, yet he is a God
here in this lower world, which seems to be afar off, as well as in
the upper world, which seems to be at hand, v. 23. The eye of God is the same on
earth that it is in heaven. Here it runs to and fro as well
as there (2 Chron. xvi. 9);
and what is in the minds of men, whose spirits are veiled in flesh,
is as clearly seen by him as what is in the mind of angels, those
unveiled spirits above that surround his throne. The power of God
is the same on earth among its inhabitants that it is in heaven
among its armies. With us nearness and distance make a great
difference both in our observations and in our operations, but it
is not so with God; to him darkness and light, at hand and afar
off, are both alike. [2.] That, how ingenious and industrious
soever men are to disguise themselves and their own characters and
counsels, they cannot possibly be concealed from God's all-seeing
eye (v. 24):
"Can any hide himself in the secret places of the earth,
that I shall not see him? Can any hide his projects and
intentions in the secret places of the heart, that I shall not see
them?" No arts of concealment can hide men from the eye of God, nor
deceive his judgment of them. [3.] That he is every where present;
he does not only rule heaven and earth, and uphold both by his
universal providence, but he fills heaven and earth by his
essential presence, Ps. cxxxix. 7,
8, &c. No place can either include him or exclude
him.

(2.) He applies this to these prophets, who
had a notable art of disguising themselves (v. 25, 26): I have heard what
the prophets said that prophesy lies in my name. They thought
that he was so wholly taken up with the other world that he had no
leisure to take cognizance of what passed in this. But God will
make them know that he knows all their impostures, all the shams
they have put upon the world, under colour of divine revelation.
What they intended to humour the people with they pretended to have
had from God in a dream, when there was no such thing. This they
could not discover. If a man tell me that he dreamed so and so, I
cannot contradict him; he knows I cannot. But God discovered the
fraud. Perhaps the false prophets whispered what they had to say in
the ears of such as were their confidants, saying, So and so I
have dreamed; but God overheard them. The heart-searching eye
of God traced them in all the methods they took to deceive the
people, and he cries out, How long? Shall I always bear with
them? Is it in the hearts of those prophets (so some read
it) to be ever prophesying lies and prophesying the deceits of
their own hearts? Will they never see what an affront they put
upon God, what an abuse they put upon the people, and what
judgments they are preparing for themselves?

2. Let them consider that their palming
upon people counterfeit revelations, and fathering their own
fancies upon divine inspiration, was the ready way to bring all
religion into contempt and make men turn atheists and infidels; and
this was the thing they really intended, though they frequently
made mention of the name of God, and prefaced all they said with,
Thus saith the Lord. Yet, says God, They think to cause
my people to forget my name by their dreams. They designed to
draw people off from the worship of God, from all regard to God's
laws and ordinances and the true prophets, as their fathers
forgot God's name for Baal. Note, The great thing Satan aims
at is to make people forget God, and all that whereby he has made
himself known; and he has many subtle methods to bring them to
this. Sometimes he does it by setting up false gods (bring men in
love with Baal, and they soon forget the name of God), sometimes by
misrepresenting the true God, as if he were altogether such a one
as ourselves. Pretenses to new revelation may prove as dangerous to
religion as the denying of all revelation; and false prophets in
God's name may perhaps do more mischief to the power of godliness
than false prophets in Baal's name, as being less guarded
against.

3. Let them consider what a vast difference
there was between their prophecies and those that were delivered by
the true prophets of the Lord (v. 28): The prophet that has a
dream, which was the way of inspiration that the false prophets
most pretended to, if he has a dream, let him tell it as a
dream; so Mr. Gataker reads it. "Let him lay no more stress
upon it than men do upon their dreams, nor expect any more regard
to be had to it. Let them not say that it is from God, nor call
their foolish dreams divine oracles. But let the true prophet, that
has my word, speak my word faithfully, speak it as a
truth" (so some read it): "let him keep closely to his
instructions, and you will soon perceive a vast difference between
the dreams that the false prophets tell and the divine dictates
which the true prophets deliver. He that pretends to have a message
from God, whether by dream or voice, let him declare it, and it
will easily appear which is of God and which is not. Those that
have spiritual senses exercised will be able to distinguish; for
what is the chaff to the wheat? The promises of peace which
these prophets make to you are no more to be compared to God's
promises than chaff to wheat." Men's fancies are light, and vain,
and worthless, as the chaff which the wind drives away. But
the word of God has substance in it; it is of value, is food for
the soul, the bread of life. Wheat was the staple commodity of
Canaan, that valley of vision, Deut. viii. 8; Ezek. xxvii. 17. There
is as much difference between the vain fancies of men and the pure
word of God as between the chaff and the wheat. It follows
(v. 29), Is not
my word like a fire, saith the Lord? Is their word so? Has it
the power and efficacy that the word of God has? No; nothing like
it; there is no more comparison than between painted fire and real
fire. Theirs is like an ignis fatuus—a deceiving meteor,
leading men into by-paths and dangerous precipices. Note, The word
of God is like fire. The law was a fiery law (Deut. xxxiii. 2), and of the gospel Christ
says, I have come to send fire on the earth, Luke xii. 49. Fire has different
effects, according as the matter is on which it works; it hardens
clay, but softens wax; it consumes the dross, but purifies the
gold. So the word of God is to some a savour of life unto life,
to others of death unto death. God appeals here to the
consciences of those to whom the word was sent: "Is not my word
like fire? Has it not been so to you? Zech. i. 6. Speak as you have found." It is
compared likewise to a hammer breaking the rock in pieces.
The unhumbled heart of man is like a rock; if it will not be melted
by the word of God as the fire, it will be broken to pieces by it
as the hammer. Whatever opposition is given to the word, it will be
borne down and broken to pieces.

4. Let them consider that while they went
on in this course God was against them. Three times they are told
this, v. 30, 31,
32. Behold, I am against the prophets. They
pretended to be for God, and made use of his name, but were really
against him; he looks upon them as they were really, and is against
them. How can they be long safe, or at all easy, that have a God of
almighty power against them? While these prophets were promising
peace to the people God was proclaiming war against them. They
stand indicted here, (1.) For robbery: They steal my word every
one from his neighbour. Some understand it of that word of God
which the good prophets preached; they stole their sermons, their
expressions, and mingled them with their own, as hucksters mingle
bad wares with some that are good, to make them vendible. Those
that were strangers to the spirit of the true prophets mimicked
their language, picked up some good sayings of theirs, and
delivered them to the people as if they had been their own, but
with an ill grace; they were not of a piece with the rest of their
discourses. The legs of the lame are not equal, so is a parable
in the mouth of fools, Prov. xxvi.
7. Others understand it of the word of God as it was
received and entertained by some of the people; they stole it out
of their hearts, as the wicked one in the parable is said to steal
the good seed of the word, Matt. xiii.
19. By their insinuations they diminished the authority,
and so weakened the efficacy, of the word of God upon the minds of
those that seemed to be under convictions by it. (2.) They stand
indicted for counterfeiting the broad seal. Therefore God is
against them (v.
31), because they use their tongues at their
pleasure in their discourses to the people; they say what they
themselves think fit, and then father it upon God, pretend they had
it from him, and say, He saith it. Some read it, They smooth
their tongues; they are very complaisant to the people, and say
nothing but what is pleasing and plausible; they never reprove them
nor threaten them, but their words are smoother than butter.
Thus they ingratiate themselves with them, and get money by them;
and they have the impudence and impiety to make God the patron of
their lies; they say, "He saith so." What greater indignity can be
done to the God of truth than to lay the brats of the father of
lies at his door? (3.) They stand indicted as common cheats
(v. 32): I am
against them, for they prophesy false dreams, pretending
that to be a divine inspiration which is but an invention of their
own. This is a horrid fraud; nor will it excuse them to say,
Caveat emptor—Let the buyer take care of himself, and Si
populus vult decipi, decipiatur—If people will be deceived, let
them. No; it is the people's fault that they err, that they
take things upon trust, and do not try the spirits; but it is much
more the prophets' fault that they cause God's people to err by
their lies and by their lightness, by the flatteries of their
preaching soothing them up in their sins, and by the looseness and
lewdness of their conversation encouraging them to persist in them.
[1.] God disowns their having any commission from him: I sent
them not, nor commanded them; they are not God's messengers,
nor is what they say his message. [2.] He therefore justly denies
his blessing with them: Therefore they shall not profit this
people at all. All the profit they aim at is to make them easy;
but they shall not so much as do that, for God's providences will
at the same time be making them uneasy. They do not profit this
people (so some read it); and more is implied than is
expressed; they not only do them no good, but do them a great deal
of hurt. Note, Those that corrupt the word of God, while they
pretend to preach it, are so far from edifying the church that they
do it the greatest mischief imaginable.

Profaneness of the People; Reproofs and
Threatenings. (b. c. 600.)

33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a
priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the
Lord? thou shalt then say unto them,
What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord. 34 And as for the prophet,
and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the
Lord, I will even punish that man
and his house. 35 Thus shall ye say every one to his
neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the Lord answered? and, What hath the Lord spoken? 36 And the burden of the
Lord shall ye mention no more: for
every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the
words of the living God, of the Lord
of hosts our God. 37 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet,
What hath the Lord answered thee?
and, What hath the Lord spoken?
38 But since ye say, The burden of the Lord; therefore thus saith the Lord; Because ye say this word, The burden of
the Lord, and I have sent unto you,
saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the Lord; 39 Therefore, behold, I, even I,
will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that
I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my
presence: 40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon
you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

The profaneness of the people, with that of
the priests and prophets, is here reproved in a particular
instance, which may seem of small moment in comparison of their
greater crimes; but profaneness in common discourse, and the
debauching of the language of a nation, being a notorious evidence
of the prevalency of wickedness in it, we are not to think it
strange that this matter was so largely and warmly insisted upon
here. Observe,

I. The sin here charged upon them is
bantering God's prophets and dialect they used, and jesting with
sacred things. They asked, What is the burden of the Lord?v. 33 and v.
34. They say, The burden of the Lord, v. 38. This was the word that
gave great offence to God, that, whenever they spoke of the word
of the Lord, they called it, in scorn and derision, the
burden of the Lord. Now, 1. This was a word that the prophets
much used, and used it seriously, to show what a weight the word of
God was upon their spirits, of what importance it was, and how
pressingly it should come upon those that heard it. The words of
the false prophets had nothing ponderous in them, but God's words
had; those were as chaff, these as wheat. Now the profane scoffers
took this word, and made a jest and a byword of it; they made
people merry with it, that so, when the prophets used it, they
might not make people serious with it. Note, It has been the
artifice of Satan, in all ages, to obstruct the efficacy of sacred
things by turning them into matter of sport and ridicule; the
mocking of God's messengers was the baffling of his messages. 2.
Perhaps this word was caught at and reproached by the scoffers as
an improper word, newly-coined by the prophets, and not used in
that sense by any classic author. It was only in this and the last
age that the word of the Lord was called the burden of
the Lord, and it could not be found in their lexicons to have
that signification. But if men take a liberty, as we see they do,
to form new phrases which they think more expressive and
significant in other parts of learning, why not in divinity? But
especially we must observe it as a rule that the Spirit of God is
not tied to our rules of speaking. 3. Some think that because when
the word of the Lord is called a burden it signifies
some word of reproof and threatening, which would lay a load upon
the hearers (yet I know not whether that observation will always
hold), therefore in using this word the burden of the Lord
in a canting way they reflected upon God as always bearing hard
upon them, always teasing them, always frightening them, and so
making the word of God a perpetual uneasiness to them. They make
the word of God a burden to themselves, and then quarrel with the
ministers for making it a burden to them. Thus the scoffers of the
latter days, while they slight heaven and salvation, reproach
faithful ministers for preaching hell and damnation. Upon the whole
we may observe that, how light soever men may make of it, the great
God takes notice of, and is much displeased with, those who
burlesque sacred things, and who, that they may make a jest of
scripture truths and laws, put jests upon scripture language. In
such wit as this I am sure there is no wisdom, and so it will
appear at last. Be you not mockers, lest your bands be made
strong. Those that were here guilty of this sin were some of
the false prophets, who perhaps came to steal the word of God from
the true prophets, some of the priests, who perhaps came to seek
occasions against them on which to ground an information, and some
of the people, who had learned of the profane priests and prophets
to play with the things of God. The people would not have affronted
the prophet and his God thus if the priests and the prophets, those
ringleaders of mischief, had not shown them the way.

II. When they are reproved for this profane
way of speaking they are directed how to express themselves more
decently. We do not find that the prophets are directed to make no
more use of this word; we find it used long after this (Zech. ix. 1; Mal. i. 1;
Nah. i. 1; Hab. i. 1); and we do not find it once used
in this sense by Jeremiah either before or after. It is true indeed
that in many cases it is advisable to make no use of such words and
things as some have made a bad use of, and it may be prudent to
avoid such phrases as, though innocent enough, are in danger of
being perverted and made stumbling-blocks. But here God will have
the prophet keep to his rule (ch. xv. 19), Let them return unto
thee, but return not thou unto them. Do not thou leave off
using this word, but let them leave off abusing it. You shall
not mention the burden of the Lord any more in this profane
careless manner (v.
36), for it is perverting the words of the living
God and making a bad use of them, which is an impious dangerous
thing; for, consider, he is the Lord of hosts our God. Note,
If we will but look upon God as we ought to do in his greatness and
goodness, and be but duly sensible of our relation and obligation
to him, it may be hoped that we shall not dare to affront him by
making a jest of his words. It is an impudent thing to abuse him
that is the living God, the Lord of hosts, and our
God. How then must they express themselves? He tells them
(v. 37): Thus
shalt thou say to the prophet, when thou art enquiring of him,
What hath the Lord answered thee? And what hath the Lord
spoken? And they must say thus when they enquire of their
neighbours, v.
35. Note, We must always speak of the things of God
reverently and seriously, and as becomes the oracles of God. It is
a commendable practice to enquire after the mind of God, to enquire
of our brethren what they have heard, to enquire of our prophets
what they have to say from God; but then, to show that we enquire
for a right end, we must do it after a right manner. Ministers may
learn here, when they reprove people for what they say and do
amiss, to teach them how to say and do better.

III. Because they would not leave off this
bad way of speaking, though they were admonished of it, God
threatens them here with utter ruin. They would still say, The
burden of the Lord, though God had sent to them to forbid them,
v. 38. What little
regard have those to the divine authority that will not be
persuaded by it to leave an idle word! But see what will come of
it. 1. Those shall be severely reckoned with that thus pervert
the words of God, that put a wrong construction on them and
make a bad use of them; and it shall be made to appear that it is a
great provocation to God to mock his messengers: I will even
punish that man and his house; whether he be prophet or priest,
or one of the common people, it shall be visited upon him,
v. 34. Perverting
God's word, and ridiculing the preachers of it, are sins that bring
ruining judgments upon families and entail a curse upon a house.
Another threatening we have v.
36. Every man's word shall be his own burden;
that is, the guilt of this sin shall be so heavy upon him as to
sink him into the pit of destruction. God shall make their own
tongue to fall upon them, Ps. lxiv.
8. God will give them enough of their jest, so that
the burden of the Lord they shall have no heart to mention
any more; it will be too heavy to make a jest of. They are as
the madman that casts firebrands, arrows, and death, while
they pretend to be in sport. 2. The words of God, though
thus perverted, shall be accomplished. Do they ask, What is the
burden of the Lord? Let the prophet ask them, What
burden do you mean? Is it this: I will even forsake you?v. 33. This is the
burden that shall be laid and bound upon them (v. 39, 40): "Behold I, even I,
will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you. I will leave
you, and have no thoughts of returning to you." Those are miserable
indeed that are forsaken and forgotten of God; and men's bantering
God's judgments will not baffle them. Jerusalem was the city God
had taken to himself as a holy city, and then given to them and
their fathers; but that shall now be forsaken and forgotten.
God had taken them to be a people near to him; but they shall now
be cast out of his presence. They had been great and
honourable among the nations; but now God will bring upon them an
everlasting reproach and a perpetual shame. Both
their sin and their punishment shall be their lasting disgrace. It
is here upon record, to their infamy, and will remain so to the
world's end. Note, God's word will be magnified and made honourable
when those that mock at it shall be vilified and made contemptible.
Those that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.